Today marks the five month anniversary of the day I started this ridiculous project. In that time I have walked 476.44 miles on the treadmill while taking 975,375 steps, watching 283 episodes and 55 stories of Doctor Who, and losing 40.02 pounds in weight. If I would have had this checkin a few days ago it would be more, but the last three days have been particularly frustrating on that point. I thought that I had finally smashed through the 270 lb barrier, but the losses last week were too much too fast and so for the past few days I have bounced back up above that line. On the one hand that is really, incredibly galling. On the other hand, this morning for the second day in a row I completed a full 55 minutes at 4.0 miles per hour at incline level six. Even a week ago that seemed impossible. As I noted last month when I wrote a similar checkin, I just want to feel good about myself physically and mentally. The simple truth is, I do. I have more stamina, I am sleeping better, I feel like my appetite is...  appropriate? Is that the right word? Like I don't crave junk food all the time, instead I crave more water and non-carbonated beverages and things like fresh fruit. Both professionally and creatively I am consistently more productive. 

And on top of that I am watching a ton of Doctor Who, including stories I have never seen before. It's really pretty awesome. Next weekend I am meeting Peter Capaldi, John Barrowman, and Karen Gillan, so how awesome is that? And yes, this morning I watched the first two episodes of The Mind of Evil.

Let's talk about that.

The Mind of Evil - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Honestly, I'm not sure I am on board with this story quite yet. The first episode sets up a prison in which violent, anti-social prisoners are "cured" by hooking them up to a machine that supposedly extracts the evil impulses from their mind. The Doctor is, not surprisingly, skeptical. He witnesses one application of the process, which seems to go poorly. Shortly thereafter two different prison officials die mysteriously while alone in the presence of the machine -- both seemingly at the hands of their deepest fear. At the end of the episode the Doctor himself almost dies while imagining himself trapped in the flames of the inferno he witnessed at the end of the previous season.

Fortunately at the start of the next episode Jo Grant walks in, thus disrupting the machine's trance and rescuing the Doctor. Meanwhile, UNIT is fully engaged in providing security for a global peace conference. The Chinese ambassador dies mysteriously, and at the end of the episode the American ambassador is about to die the same way as a young Chinese woman wields the power of the mind-altering machine despite being miles away. And of course, the Master is there orchestrating things from a distance. 

It's a weird kind of a setup, and so far it just hasn't really gelled for me. There is another dangling plot thread about an intercontinental ballistic missile that is about to be escorted through the city to be dismantled by UNIT, which clearly the Master is going to steal for his own purposes. I gather he is also enlisting prisoners as a part of his plot, as there is a riot in progress and Jo is being held hostage. It's a lot of moving pieces, and this is a six-parter, so everything hasn't come together yet.

I am not hating it by any means, but so far it lacks the urgency that really made Inferno shine as a story. Also so far the Master has not done much besides skulk around and hypnotize a few people. With any luck, tomorrow's viewing will be more exciting.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Third
Companion(s): Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Episode(s): The Mind of Evil - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,999 today, 975,375 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 476.44 miles total
Weight: 267.28 lbs (five day moving average), net change -40.02 lbs